July 6, 2021
Dear Celebration Residents:
As required by our charter, the CROA Board of Directors (Board) has undertaken an extensive process of evaluating potential management companies to serve as Celebration’s Town Hall staff. These staff members handle the day to day operations of our homeowners association – from pool and park maintenance, to accounting services, to planned events, and much more. Since the contract with our current management company (CCMC) expires at the end of 2021, we undertook a thorough, nearly year-long Request for Proposals (RFP) process. Regular updates have been provided at our Board meetings and with monthly articles in the Celebration News.
We are pleased to inform you that, effective today, the Board has narrowed our search to two companies – GrandManors and Sentry Management.
With this impending change, we felt it is of utmost importance that we take this opportunity to offer a heart-felt thank-you to CCMC for its roughly 25 years of professional service to our community. CCMC has been our partner since the inception of Celebration. The staff members – the names and faces we see around our community and in Town Hall – provided their experience and expertise to help shape our community. We are grateful to CCMC as a management company, and to the many staff members over the years for bringing us to this juncture.
Further, it is noteworthy that our work to get to this point – from writing a new scope of work, to narrowing our search from over 250 companies originally, to six finalists submitting proposals, to two today – has been based on the tireless professionalism, knowledge and dedication of our RFP Task Force. Relying on their proficiency in their respective fields, the Board requested and received detailed insights on each of the six finalists from this task force as well as from CROA’s Finance and Technology Committees. We have worked closely with the Celebration Non-Residential Owners Association (CNOA) and the Celebration Joint Committee (CJC) as we move to this next phase of our process.
We know that there will be interest in how the Boards reached this decision. Out of fairness to each of the six finalist companies and with respect for their proprietary information, we will say that the process was in-depth, painstaking, fair and independent. You are welcome to speak with members of the Board, RFP Task Force, plus the Finance and Technology Committees if you would like their thoughts. It was a unanimous decision of the CROA Board to recommend these two finalists. Each Board member reached this conclusion independently, based on their own perspectives and lens. The CROA Board then met with the CJC and CNOA Boards and they ratified this decision. In other words, nothing was done in haste or without reason, and we are excited to start a new chapter in the history of our remarkable community.
Each of the two finalists is being invited for a full-day interview later in July. Each finalist is being asked to start their Board interviews with a 45-minute presentation, which will be recorded. Once both interviews are done, these two presentations will be posted on the Celebration website. Residents will have the opportunity to view these, and then share observations and raise questions during a resident discussion on Wednesday, August 4 (watch for later notices on this virtual meeting). The CROA Board, in conjunction with the CNOA and CJC Boards, will make the final selection by August 10, and then enter into final contract negotiations. With the final management company selection, we will enter into several months of planning to have a smooth transition of all the records, documents, procedures, and more. The new contract for Celebration’s management company is set to start on January 1, 2022.
We will keep you fully apprised as we move forward with our decision-making process. We will have a Frequently Asked Questions section on our Celebration website (under Community Governance – Management Company RFP Resident Briefings) and update this based on your questions and concerns. We know that a change in management companies will be challenging, but trust (and will be relying upon) the professionalism of all staff involved – current and future – to make this process as seamless as possible. We anticipate an even brighter future for Celebration with many positive enhancements in our community as we continue to build upon the foundations implemented by CCMC and its staff over our first quarter century.
Thank-you, and please do feel free to reach out to any of us with any questions.
The CROA Board of Directors